ch.2

My first objective is to find food.

"Grooowl!" I bend over and place my good arm around my stomach, even thinking of food made my stomach ache from hunger.

According to Alexander's memories he hadn't eaten for 3 days, which is why he was slow enough to be caught by the stall owner.

Ok…first things first, how to get food?

'I could go dumpster diving' I thought.

The thought of dumpster diving immediately brought up a picture in my mind of a dumpster and how dirty they were in this part of the world. I would sooner end up barfing my guts out or get a disease than eat anything nutritious.

Guess that one is out.

Stealing food would be a bad idea in my condition. I had almost no energy left in my body to run away with whatever I stole and if for some miracle I had the energy to do so, running would end up jolting my broken arm leaving me laying paralyzed on the ground from the pain. Waiting for someone to come along and finish the job and kill me properly this time.

That one is out too.

That left buying food, food that cost money, money I don't have, leaving me with only one option, I had to beg for it. I could feel something deep inside me rebel at the mere thought of begging people for money or anything for that matter, but I pushed it down, sometimes you must do what you must to survive.

I looked down at myself, I was wearing rags that were a size or two too big for me especially on my skinny malnutrition frame and shoes that looked like they could fall apart any day now.

Luckily it was the middle of summer because I didn't have a coat, I would need one for when it starts to get cold but hopefully I will be in a warm and cozy house by then.

While thinking, I had wobbled my way out of the alleyway where I woke up, and into the marketplace. It was a marketplace next to one of the many casinos in Macau so there were restaurants, hotels and stalls set up everywhere trying to sell their merchandise to the tourist and regulars coming to gamble.

I went the opposite way from the food stall where Alexander…or rather I, since I was Alexander now, tried to steal the meat bun from, was set up.

It was noon so there were plenty of people out and about, going about their everyday business or taking their lunch breaks.

As I walked past I could see people hold their noses and sneer at me or completely ignore me like I wasn't even there.

It was the first time I felt so humiliated in my life, I almost gave up right there and slunk back into the alley, before remembering my goal, fuck these people I just need enough money to buy something to eat.

When my stomach was full, then and only then could I think about improving my situation.

I walked till I was close to the casino entrance but not close enough that one of the guards standing at the entrance would come and kick my ass for dirtying their casino.

My theory for choosing this place was simple, at this time of day only casual and addicted gamblers that hadn't left visited the casino, the ones I was after were the casual gamblers, they had money to gamble and didn't mind throwing it away at the casino, unlike the addicts that would never think of giving me money they could be gambling with, the casual gamblers wouldn't really care.

Not sure what to do I just sat down and put my left hand in the classic begging position and made sure to showcase my broken arm hoping for some pity.

I would like to tell you that someone immediately came up to me offering to help me and take me to a hospital, or even just give me some money but in reality I sat there for hours before an old woman coming out of the casino took pity on me and gave me 20 yuan.

It may sound like much but it was barely enough money to buy me enough food at one of the stalls to fill my stomach for the day.

It may not have been much but it was enough to complete my goal for the day, I stood up and started walking to one of the food stalls, the fried meat stand in particular, the smell had been assaulting me for the past few hours making me drool from hunger.

And that is when everything went wrong, there were so many things, I could have done better, should have done better.

I should have studied Alexander's memories better, to understand how to live on the streets better, something I had never done.

I should have hidden the money the moment I got it, instead of walking around with it in plain sight.

I should have been more suspicious, more on guard but I wasn't, I was still thinking like an American boy coming from a middle class home.

I should have been thinking like a street rat in the city of Sin. Like I currently was, if I had done so, I wouldn't have been in this situation.

I had almost reached the stall when two hands grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into a side alley, I grunted in pain when the one on my right arm jolted my broken arm.

Turning around I saw 2 men…boys they couldn't be older than 18 standing in front of me.

The one on the left had bleached blonde hair, that really didn't match his skinny average Asian face.

The one on the right had spiky black hair and piercings everywhere from his ears to his lips.

It was the most cliché thing I had seen, it looked like they had jumped right out the dictionary next to the description of delinquents.

The left over spirit of Alexander in me recognized them and he was afraid. He didn't know them by name or anything but he had heard of them and their description, about them beating up street rats, not for their money or anything, but because they liked it.

Of course they also took the money out of spite, after they were done beating the street rats.

The thing is, I wasn't Alexander, I may be inside the body of an 8 year old but my mind was that of 16 year old American and if there is one thing I knew about getting in such situations, it was to scream. No one wanted attention when beating up a child, and that is before the cops get involved.

I opened my mouth to start screaming when I felt something press against my side.

Closing my mouth with a click, I froze before looking down in fear at where the spiky haired one was pressing a switchblade against my lung.

"If you scream it's going to be a very short one with a hole in one of your lungs," he said menacing.

"Give us the money and we won't beat you up," the one with bleached blonde hair said.

I knew he was lying, they didn't do this for the money, they did it because they wanted to beat up kids without consequences.

He reached for the crumpled 20 yuan bill in my white knuckled fist, I didn't want to let go, I really didn't but the feeling of the switchblade pushing deeper in my side convinced me otherwise.

"Please, I haven't eaten in days!" I begged them, praying that they would have a smidgen of humanity left in their bodies.

The one with blonde hair looked at the spiky one, who though about it before nodding, he sighed before stretching his hand out to give me the 20 yuan back.

"Than...thank y… " I started saying reaching for the money, before I found myself on my knees, with tears running down my face, my stomach crying out in agony.

With nothing left in my stomach, I vomited the only content of my stomach on the ground, my stomach acid.

"Did you see his face, he really believed it!" the one with spiky hair said, laughing so hard he almost couldn't talk.

"Look Satchi, he's crying," said the one that hit me, squatting down to look at my face.

Somewhere deep inside me something broke, I had died, only for my second chance to be inside the body of a dying street rat but still I hadn't complained, I had set my pride aside and begged, on an empty stomach, with a broken arm that was a constant burning pain in the back of my mind, for 20 lousy yuan something I used to squander on candy in my previous life only for these 2 motherfuckers that didn't even need it to steal it from me.

Never had I felt so much hatred in my life, and for the first time in both of my lives I wanted…no I needed to kill someone.

"I'm going to kill you!" I promised, glaring at him before lurching forward and head butting him with everything I had left in me, I felt his nose break against my forehead, blood spraying against my face.

"AAAAaaah!" he screamed falling to the ground, holding his nose in pain.

"hahahaha!" I laughed laying on the ground with no energy left in my body to run or move for that matter.

"you little bastard, you're dead!" he screamed standing up, glaring at my laughing form.

Walking up to me, he kicked me hard in my stomach.

I felt one of my ribs shift inwards, with the hit.

It hurt, it hurt like hell but I didn't cry out, the pain was nothing compared to the burning hatred I was feeling in my chest.

So I just kept laughing up at him.

He glared at me even harder this time and went to kick me again, this time I was expecting it and when he made contact with my stomach I took hold of his leg and bit as hard as I could into it.

Stopping him from doing anymore damage to my ribs.

His screams were like music to my ears.

He swung his leg trying to make me let go, Instead of letting go I held on, attempting to bite a piece out of his leg.

I must have looked like a rabid dog to whoever cared to watch, and honestly I don't care, all I cared about was making him pay and suffer as much as I could.

Unfortunately for me, he got smart and started hitting me on the head to make me let go.

I would like to say I held on heroically but the truth was my body was on its last leg, running thought the last dredges of energy it had left.

Blood started flowing into my eyes, my vision started going dark and before I knew it I was on my back, missing two of my teeth.

"I think you killed the little bastard Quan," Satchi said, walking up to me and looking me over.

He looked down at me, "Good riddance!" he said, before spitting on me.

"Lets get out of here, before the cops show up," Quan said, holding his nose and trying not to put pressure on his right leg.

"I…I will kill you…Satchi….Quan!" I grinned with blood flowing from my mouth, looking them both in the eyes one last time even as all I could see was spots of light and darkness encroaching on the edges of my sight.

Unbeknownst to me at the time my normally green eyes started to glow a familiar blood red.

It felt so surreal, getting a second chance in life only to lose it the same day.

My last thoughts before everything went black were thoughts of regret, that I won't be able to kill those two Motherfuckers